Transport and Journeys 

This term, our topic of transport and journeys also kept us very busy. We have been enjoying our role play airport where we have been weighing luggage and buying plane tickets to go to hot and cold countries. We’ve also enjoyed weighing other things like slimy ‘wiggly worms’ and ingredients for a ‘sand pie’. The children were brilliant at designing and making wheeled vehicles. 

Writing

We have been reading the story of ‘The Gingerbread Man’. We made our own gingerbread man and took him with us on our local area walk. When we came back we told stories about where he had been.  At the art table, we made a giant map of where we went on our walk. 

Our writing is improving day by day! We have been making the most of the lovely weather by doing some writing outside about journeys to far away places like the moon! 

Milton Keynes

We also celebrated our favourite places to go in Milton Keynes by working with our parents to build a model for our very own cardboard city!  The most popular places to go include: Willen Lake, Bletchley Leisure Centre and the Xscape.  We hope you enjoy looking at our models of the fantastic city that we live in!

Going on a Bear Hunt

We read the story of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and were very excited when Mrs Durcan came into our class to tell us she had found some bear fur! She needed our help to look for clues in the environment that might tell us if the bear was about!

We used binoculars that we had made so we set off to find clues. We found bear fur, bear paw prints and honey! We also noticed cracks in the playground where we think the bear might have scratched it.  We found leaves that the bear might have eaten and we noticed that the gate was left ajar; perhaps the bear had escaped!

Luckily we found the bear asleep near a tree!

Experimenting to make a ‘disappearing potion’

We watched a video of Meg and Mog and we were so excited about Meg’s ‘disappearing potion’ that we decided to make our own!

We experimented to find out which ingredients would make the best ‘disappearing potion’. We learnt that when something disappears in water the word that we use is ‘dissolve’. First we predicted which ingredients would dissolve. Then we tested them by stirring in different ingredients such as cocoa powder and rice in water. We recorded which ingredients dissolved and decided that they made the best ‘disappearing’ or ‘dissolving potion’. 

Our trip to Toys R Us and Kam Tong Garden

Last week we went on our first school trip! First we visited Toys R us where we were shown around the store as well as the stock room. We found out about how the toys are organised on each aisle and spoke about the materials that different toys were made from. There were lots of toys which we love!

After Toys R Us, we went to a Chinese restaurant to help us understand Chinese culture and the celebrations which take place during Chinese New Year. We had a delicious lunch and we tried every dish at least once. Our manners were perfect throughout and we enjoyed our day very much!

Chinese New Year 

We have been learning about Chinese New Year. We have found out that Chinese people prepare for the Chinese New Year by cleaning their house and decorating it with red and gold lanterns.

We also learned that each year is named after a different animal. This year is the year of the horse so we have made a big horse for our special display. We mixed paint, water and washing up liquid and had a go at some messy bubble painting. We enjoyed this very much!

We have been practising lots for our class assembly about Chinese New Year - we hope you can make it. 

Patterns

We have been learning about Rangoli patterns and exploring symmetry in lots of different ways. We have drawn our own symmetrical patterns, used shape tiles and even tried making human symmetrical patterns by copying our partner’s actions. 

A ‘trip’ to the theatre for Diwali

Our new topic, ‘Festivals & Celebrations’ began with a pretend trip to the theatre to watch a performance about the story of Rama & Sita. We found out why Hindus light diva lamps to celebrate Diwali.  We are enjoying using our theatre to perform our own dances and plays. 

Ourselves

We have been learning about the inside of our bodies: the skeleton.  We found out that doctors can take an x-ray to see the bones inside our bodies.  We even made our own x-ray machine to look at the bones in our arm!  In the hospital role play area we fixed the broken bones and wrote prescriptions for medicines to help make our patients feel better. We took turns to draw around the shape of our bodies to make a self portrait.  We were very lucky when a new mum brought in her new born baby to visit us.  We asked lots of questions and realised that babies’ bodies grow and change. 

Our first week...

We have been very busy enjoying the range of activities that help us to learn in different ways. We have been singing songs and listening to music, exploring numbers, writing our names, investigating materials and playing in the role play hospital and the role play cafe.  We were lucky enough to have some good weather so we spent lots of time outside exploring our outdoor play equipment.

We have settled in well to our new school!